Ca_Law

case_law | United States Federal

Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith

Summary

The “purpose and character” of the Andy Warhol Foundation’s particular commercial use of Lynn Goldsmith’s photograph—17 U. S. C. §107(1)—does not favor AWF’s “fair use” defense to copyright infringement.

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  • #1

    PRELIMINARY PRINT Volume 598 U. S. Part 2 Pages 508–593 OFFICIAL REPORTS OF THE SUPREME COURT May 18, 2023 REBECCA A. WOMELDORF reporter of decisions Page Proof Pending Publication NOTICE: This preliminary print is subject to formal revision before the bound volume is published. Users are requested to notif…

  • #2

    it had infringed her copyright. AWF then sued Goldsmith for a declar- atory judgment of noninfringement or, in the alternative, fair use. Goldsmith counterclaimed for infringement. The District Court consid- ered the four fair use factors in 17 U. S. C. § 107 and granted AWF sum- mary judgment on its defense of fa…

  • #3

    to create against the costs of restrictions on copying. This balancing act is refected in the common-law doctrine of fair use, codifed in § 107, which provides: “[T]he fair use of a copyrighted work, . . . for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . , scholarship, or research, is not an…

  • #4

    son's song, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” to create a rap derivative, “Pretty Woman.” 2 Live Crew transformed Orbison's song by adding new lyr- ics and musical elements, such that “Pretty Woman” had a different message and aesthetic than “Oh, Pretty Woman.” But that did not end the Court's analysis of the frst fair use fact…

  • #5

    wise run the risk of substitution for the original or licensed derivatives of it. See id., at 580, n. 14. In sum, if an original work and secondary use share the same or highly similar purposes, and the secondary use is commercial, the frst fair use factor is likely to weigh against fair use, absent some other ju…

  • #6

    add new expression of some kind. The meaning of a secondary work, as reasonably can be perceived, should be considered to the extent nec- essary to determine whether the purpose of the use is distinct from the original. For example, the Court in Campbell considered the messages of 2 Live Crew's song to determine w…

  • #7

    for the very act of borrowing.” Id., at 581. Moreover, because AWF's copying of Goldsmith's photograph was for a commercial use so similar to the photograph's typical use, a particularly compelling justifcation is needed. Copying the photograph because doing so was merely helpful to convey a new meaning or message…

  • #8

    Jordana S. Rubel, Nicholas R. Bartelt, and Shireen Nasir.* *Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were fled for Artists by Brian M. Willen; for Art Law Professors by Mark A. Lemley, pro se, and Joseph C. Gratz; for the Authors Alliance by Erik Stallman and Pamela Samuel- son; for Documentary Filmmakers by Caren D…

  • #9

    Briefs of amici curiae were fled for the American Intellectual Property Law Association by Lauren B. Emerson, Stefanie M. Garibyan, and Pat- rick J. Coyne; for the Art Institute of Chicago et al. by Simon J. Frankel; for the Authors Guild, Inc., et al. by Eleanor M. Lackman, Robert Rotstein, Eric J. Schwartz, and …

  • #10

    came away with $10,000. Goldsmith received nothing. When Goldsmith informed AWF that she believed its use of her photograph infringed her copyright, AWF sued her. The District Court granted summary judgment for AWF on its assertion of “fair use,” 17 U. S. C. § 107, but the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit …

  • #11

    Page Proof Pending Publication Cite as: 598 U. S. 508 (2023) 517 Opinion of the Court Page Proof Pending Publication Figure 1. A black and white portrait photograph of Prince taken in 1981 by Lynn Goldsmith. license were that the illustration was “to be published in Vanity Fair November 1984 issue. It can appea…

  • #12

    tone impressions” served as an “ `under-drawing,' ” over which Warhol painted colors by hand. Id., at 165. Cite as: 598 U. S. 508 (2023) 519 Opinion of the Court Prince”) on the cover of a magazine published by Vanity Fair's parent company, Condé Nast. See fg. 3, infra. By that time, Warhol had died, and the Pri…

  • #13

    infra. All of them depicted Prince on the cover. All of them used a copyrighted photograph in service of that ob- ject. And all of them (except Condé Nast) credited the photographer. Page Proof Pending Publication Figure 5. Four special edition magazines commemorating Prince after he died in 2016. 522 ANDY WARH…

  • #14

    the photograph's protectible elements in creating the Prince Series.” Id., at 330. Finally, the fourth factor likewise fa- vored AWF because “the Prince Series works are not mar- ket substitutes that have harmed—or have the potential to harm—Goldsmith.” Id., at 331. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rev…

  • #15

    other artists to create derivative works,” id., at 48–51. 3 The court noted that there was “no material dispute that both Goldsmith and AWF have sought to license (and indeed have successfully licensed) their respective depictions of Prince to popular print magazines to accompany articles about him.” Id., at 49 …

  • #16

    ing to AWF, by not considering that new expression. Id., at 47–48. But the frst fair use factor instead focuses on whether an allegedly infringing use has a further purpose or different character, which is a matter of degree, and the degree of difference must be weighed against other considerations, like commerc…

  • #17

    ration of copyright, §§ 302–305, as required by the Constitu- tion; makes facts and ideas uncopyrightable, § 102; and limits the scope of copyright owners' exclusive rights, §§ 107–122. This balancing act between creativity and availability (in- cluding for use in new works) is refected in one such limita- Page P…

  • #18

    factor considers the reasons for, and nature of, the copier's use of an original work. The “central” question it asks is “whether the new work merely `supersede[s] the objects' of the original creation . . . (`supplanting' the original), or in- stead adds something new, with a further purpose or differ- ent chara…

  • #19

    der such uses fair. Rather, the frst factor (which is just one factor in a larger analysis) asks “whether and to what extent” the use at issue has a purpose or character different from the original. Campbell, 510 U. S., at 579 (emphasis added). The larger the difference, the more likely the frst factor weighs in …

  • #20

    Live Crew's copying of certain lyrics and musical elements from Roy Orbison's song, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” to create a rap derivative titled “Pretty Woman.” Without a doubt, 2 Live Crew transformed Orbison's song by adding new lyrics and musical elements, such that “Pretty Woman” had a new message and different aest…

  • #21

    See 510 U. S., at 579 (“[T]he more transformative the new work, the less will be the signifcance of other factors, like commercialism, that may weigh against a fnding of fair use”); see also id., at 580, 585. 6 Second, the frst factor also relates to the justifcation for the use. In a broad sense, a use that has…

  • #22

    for the original or licensed derivatives of it. See id., at 580, n. 14; Harper & Row , 471 U. S., at 557. Once again, the question of justifcation is one of degree. See Leval 1111 (“[I]t is not suffcient simply to conclude whether or not justi- fcation exists. The question remains how powerful, or per- suasive, i…

  • #23

    to Vanity Fair to serve as an artist reference, Warhol used the photograph to create the Vanity Fair illustration and the other Prince Series works. Vanity Fair then used the pho- 8 Consider, for example, this Court's analysis of the frst factor in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., 593 U. S. ––– (2021). Google s…

  • #24

    Prince Series works, but Goldsmith has abandoned all claims to relief other than her claim as to the 2016 Condé Nast license and her request for prospective relief as to similar commercial licensing. Brief for Re- spondents 3, 17–18; Tr. of Oral Arg. 80–82. 10 The dissent, however, focuses on a case that is not be…

  • #25

    Goldsmith make a living. They provide an economic incen- tive to create original works, which is the goal of copyright. In 2016, AWF licensed an image of Orange Prince to Condé Nast to appear on the cover of a commemorative edi- tion magazine about Prince. The edition, titled “The Genius of Prince,” celebrates th…

  • #26

    have “much of a future in magazine publishing,” the dissent chides. Post, at 567. While the dissent is probably correct about the Court's business prospects, the editors of People, Rolling Stone, and Time chose a vari- ety of different photos of Prince for their memorial issues. See fg. 5, supra. Portrait photos, …

  • #27

    Harper & Row , 471 U. S., at 562. 13 Taken together, these two elements—that Goldsmith's photograph and AWF's 2016 licensing of Orange Prince share alongside an article about Warhol. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 33. While keenly grasping the relationship between The Two Lolitas, the dissent fumbles …

  • #28

    substantially the same purpose, and that AWF's use of Gold- smith's photo was of a commercial nature—counsel against fair use, absent some other justifcation for copying. That is, although a use's transformativeness may outweigh its commercial character, here, both elements point in the same direction. 14 The f…

  • #29

    Page Proof Pending Publication Cite as: 598 U. S. 508 (2023) 539 Opinion of the Court Figure 7. A print based on the Campbell's soup can, one of Warhol's works that replicates a copyrighted advertising logo. Yet not all of Warhol's works, nor all uses of them, give rise to the same fair use analysis. In fact, So…

  • #30

    the Prince Series works to portray Prince as “an iconic, larger-than-life fgure.” 382 F. Supp. 3d, at 326. AWF also asserts that the works are a comment on celebrity. In particular, “Warhol's Prince Series conveys the dehu- manizing nature of celebrity.” Brief for Petitioner 44. According to AWF, that new meaning…

  • #31

    Walker's The Color Purple, might win awards for its “sig- nifcant creative contribution”; alter the meaning of a classic novel; and add “important new expression,” such as images, performances, original music, and lyrics. Post, at 567, 580 (Kagan, J., dissenting) (internal quotation marks omitted). But that does …

  • #32

    bind. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 15–16. The Court is aware of no authority for the proposition that the frst factor favors such uses (on the dissent's view, the frst factor must, because the use modifes the expressive content of an original work), leaving it to the fourth factor to ensure that § 106(2) is not a dead let…

  • #33

    that a judge or Justice considers to be creative progress consistent with the constitutional objective of copyright, is thereby transformative. The Court instead emphasized that Google used Sun's code in a “distinct and different” context, and “only insofar as needed” or “necessary” to achieve Google's new purpose…

  • #34

    cal History 287 (S. Madoff ed. 1997), with R. Hughes, The Shock of the New 346–351 (2d ed. 1991). Whatever the contribution of Orange Prince, Goldsmith's photograph is part of that contribution. A court need not, indeed should not, assess the relative worth of two works to decide a claim of fair use. Otherwise, “s…

  • #35

    use at issue. The use is AWF's commercial licensing of Orange Prince to appear on the cover of Condé Nast's special commemorative edition. The purpose of that use is, still, to illustrate a magazine about Prince with a portrait of Prince. Although the purpose could be more specifcally described as illustrating a …

  • #36

    was unpublished when Goldsmith licensed it to Vanity Fair, and that nei- Page Proof Pending Publication Page Proof Pending Publication Cite as: 598 U. S. 508 (2023) 547 Opinion of the Court ing from” her work “diminishes accordingly (if it does not vanish).” 510 U. S., at 580. 21 The commercial nature of the us…

  • #37

    of Goldsmith's work with some reason other than, “I can make it better.” Page Proof Pending Publication 548 ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR VISUAL ARTS, INC. v. GOLDSMITH Opinion of the Court sample another artist's song to make his own, a playwright who fnds it helpful to adapt a novel, or a flmmaker who would pref…

  • #38

    These claims will not age well. It will not impoverish our world to require AWF to pay Goldsmith a fraction of the proceeds from its reuse of her copyrighted work. Recall, payments like these are incentives for artists to create origi- nal works in the frst place. Nor will the Court's decision, which is consisten…

  • #39

    not receive protection; the requirement of originality; the legal standard for actionable copying; the limited duration of copyright; and, yes, the defense of fair use, including all its factors, such as whether the amount taken is reasonable in relation to the purpose of the use. These doctrines (and oth- ers) p…

  • #40

    Because this Court agrees with the Court of Appeals that the frst factor likewise favors her, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is Affrmed. Page Proof Pending Publication 552 ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR VISUAL ARTS, INC. v. GOLDSMITH Appendix to opinion of the Court APPENDIX Page Proof Pending Publication …

  • #41

    overlap so completely, Ms. Goldsmith argues that the frst Page Proof Pending Publication 554 ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR VISUAL ARTS, INC. v. GOLDSMITH Gorsuch, J., concurring statutory factor does not support a fair-use affirmative defense. As I see it, the second view of the law is the better one. Nothing in …

  • #42

    “transformed” its message and endowed it with a “new aes- thetic” cannot automatically mean he has made fair use of it. Contra, post, at 558–559, 579–580, 591–593 (Kagan, J., dissenting). To hold otherwise would risk making a non- sense of the statutory scheme—suggesting that transforma- tive uses of originals be…

  • #43

    and their aesthetic character actually more similar than that? Happily, the law does not require judges to tangle with ques- tions so far beyond our competence. Instead, the frst fair- use factor requires courts to assess only whether the purpose and character of the challenged use is the same as a pro- tected us…

  • #44

    ity between the allegedly infringing work and the original elements of his own copyrighted work. See 4 Nimmer on Copyright § 13.03[A] (2023). And even when two works are substantially similar, if both the plaintiff's and the defend- ant's works copy from a third source (reworking, say, a tradi- tional artistic or…

  • #45

    Warhol's portrait were transformative—even if its expres- sion and meaning were worlds away from the photo's—that fact would not matter. For in the majority's view, copyright law's frst fair-use factor—addressing “the purpose and char- acter” of “the use made of a work”—is uninterested in the distinctiveness and …

  • #46

    asking the following question: Does the work “add[ ] some- thing new, with a further purpose or different character, al- tering the [original] with new expression, meaning, or mes- sage”? Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U. S. 569, 579 (1994); see Google, 593 U. S., at –––. When it did so to a signifcant d…

  • #47

    edge and invention generally develop). The fair-use test's frst factor responds to that truth: As understood in our prec- edent, it provides “breathing space” for artists to use exist- ing materials to make fundamentally new works, for the pub- lic's enjoyment and beneft. Id., at 579. In now remaking that factor,…

  • #48

    original submission. I'll just make two suggestions about reading what follows. First, when you see that my description of a precedent differs from the majority's, go take a look at the decision. Second, when you come across an argument that you recall the majority took issue with, go back to its response and ask …

  • #49

    (internal quotation marks omitted). But they also function as a biting critique of the cult of celebrity, and the role it plays in American life. With misaligned, “Day-Glo” colors suggesting “artifciality and industrial production,” Warhol portrayed the actress as a “consumer product.” The Metro- politan Museum o…

  • #50

    Andy Warhol, Prince, 1984, synthetic paint and silkscreen ink on canvas It does not take an art expert to see a transformation— but in any event, all those offering testimony in this case agreed there was one. The experts explained, in far greater detail than I have, the laborious and painstaking work that Warhol…

  • #51

    6); see also Brief for Goldsmith 17 (doing the same thing). But the major- ity is trying too hard: Its manipulated picture in fact reveals the signif- cance of the cropping and facial reorientation that went into Warhol's image. And the majority's WarGold combo of course cannot obscure the other differences, of co…

  • #52

    568 ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR VISUAL ARTS, INC. v. GOLDSMITH Kagan, J., dissenting their “public availability.” Ante, at 526. But that descrip- tion sells fair use far short. Beyond promoting “avail- ability,” fair use itself advances creativity and artistic progress. See Campbell, 510 U. S., at 575, 579 (fair …

  • #53

    ity—sometimes demands a pass for copying. To identify when that is so, the courts developed and Congress later codifed a multi-factored inquiry. As the ma- jority describes, see ante, at 527, the current statute sets out four non-exclusive considerations to guide courts. They are: (1) “the purpose and character o…

  • #54

    out right unless each factor is assessed correctly. This case, of course, is about (and only about) the frst. And that factor is distinctive: It is the only one that fo- cuses on what the copier's use of the original work accom- plishes. The frst factor asks about the “character” of that use—its “main or essentia…

  • #55

    the frst factor's purpose-and-character test “central[ly]” concerns “whether and to what extent the new work is `transformative.' ” 510 U. S., at 579 (quoting Leval 1111). That makes sense, we explained, because “the goal of copy- right, to promote science and the arts, is generally furthered by the creation of t…

  • #56

    hol. (The majority claims not to be embarrassed by this em- barrassing fact because the specifc reference was to his Soup Cans, rather than his celebrity images. But drawing a dis- tinction between a “commentary on consumerism”—which is how the majority describes his soup canvases, ante, at 539— and a commentary …

  • #57

    “alter[ed] the [original work's] expression, meaning, [and] message.” Ibid. The differences in form and appearance, relating to “composition, presentation, color palette, and media.” 1 App. 227; see supra, at 564–566. The differences in meaning that arose from replacing a realistic—and indeed humanistic—depiction…

  • #58

    a particular meaning” that was already “available in [Gold- smith's] photograph.” Ibid. So too, Warhol's commentary on celebrity culture matters not at all; the majority is not willing to concede that it even exists. See ibid. (“even if such commentary is perceptible”). And as for the District Court's view that W…

  • #59

    pose”—meaning, a commercial one. Ante, at 535, 550; see ante, at 526, 539, n. 15, 545, 547. Or said otherwise, because Warhol entered into a licensing transaction with Condé Nast, he could not get any help from factor 1—regardless how transformative his image was. See, e. g., ante, at 547 (War- hol's licensing “o…

  • #60

    rids the term of most of its ordinary meaning. “Character” typically refers to a thing's “main or essential nature[,] es- p[ecially] as strongly marked and serving to distinguish.” Webster's Third 376; see supra, at 570. The essential and distinctive nature of an artist's use of a work commonly in- volves artistr…

  • #61

    what the copier does with the underlying work. So when the statute more particularly asks (in factor 1) about the “purpose and character of the use”—meaning again, the “use made of [the copyrighted] work”—it is asking to what end, and with what result, the copier made use of the original. And that necessarily invo…

  • #62

    the new expression, meaning, or message that may come from someone else using the original. Under the statute, Page Proof Pending Publication Cite as: 598 U. S. 508 (2023) 579 Kagan, J., dissenting courts are supposed to strike a balance between the two— and thus between rewarding original creators and enabling …

  • #63

    with nearly all the majority says. As explained earlier, this Court has decided two important cases about factor 1. See supra, at 570–573. In each, the copier had built on the origi- nal to make a product for sale—so the use was patently com- mercial. And in each, that fact made no difference, because the use was…

  • #64

    510 U. S., at 581, n. 14. Google proves the point. The new work there did not parody, comment on, or otherwise direct itself to the old: The former just made use of the latter for its own devices. Yet that fact never made an appearance in the Court's opinion; what mattered instead was the “highly creative” use Go…

  • #65

    a million outside sources.” Letter from M. Twain to H. Keller, in 2 Mark Twain's Letters 731 (1917); see also id., at 732 (quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes—no, not that one, his father the poet—as saying “I have never originated anything altogether myself, nor met anybody who had”). “[A]ppropriation, mimicry, quotat…

  • #66

    Romeo, “Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art,” appeared in Brooke as “Art thou a man? The shape saith so thou art.” Bullough 387. (Shakespeare was, among other things, a good editor.) Of course Shakespeare also added loads of genius, and so made the borrowed stories “uniquely Shakespearian.” G. Williams, S…

  • #67

    make a corner in talking birds. . . . It is my debt to Washington Irving that exercises my conscience, and justly so, for I believe plagiarism was rarely carried far- ther. . . . Billy Bones, his chest, the company in the par- lor, the whole inner spirit and a good deal of the material detail of my frst chapters—…

  • #68

    as these things go—his music became a source for others. Charlie Parker turned The Rite of Spring into something of a jazz standard: You can still hear the Stravinsky lurking, but jazz musicians make the composition a thing of a differ- ent kind. And popular music? I won't point fngers, but Page Proof Pending Pub…

  • #69

    Beatles-inspired beat, and the “pound of Dylan's acoustic guitars” was “transformed” into a “danceable” and “uplifting” megahit. R. Unter- berger, Turn! Turn! Turn! 137 (2002). And that rendition (not Dylan's own) launched a thousand ships. Among other things, it “spawned an entirely new style” of music—what soon …

  • #70

    work of artistic modernism, but referring in obvious ways to Titian's (and back a step, to Giorgione's) Venus: Cite as: 598 U. S. 508 (2023) 589 Kagan, J., dissenting Manet, Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas Here again consider the account of the Rauschenberg, Lich- tenstein, and Mitchell Foundations: “The revolution…

  • #71

    immaterial. Both paintings, after all, are “portraits of [Pope Innocent X] used to depict [Pope Innocent X]” for hanging in some interior space, ante, at 526; so on the majori- ty's reasoning, someone in the market for a papal portrait could use either one, see ante, at 535–536. Velázquez's por- trait, although B…

  • #72

    fashion something new. And so too, this Court—from Jus- tice Story's time to two Terms ago—has known that it is through such iterative processes that knowledge accumu- lates and art fourishes. But not anymore. The majority's decision is no “continuation” of “existing copyright law.” Ante, at 550. In declining to …

  • #73

    cense with few conditions, and for a price well within his budget. But as our precedents show, licensors sometimes place stringent limits on follow-on uses, especially to prevent kinds of expression they disapprove. And licensors may charge fees that prevent many or most artists from gaining access to original wo…